Hats and Eyeglasses: A Family Love Affair with Gambling
Author: Martha Frankel
A gloriously written memoir of growing up in a family of hard-core gamblers-Martha Frankel thought the gambling gene had passed her by, until she found herself addicted to online poker and knee-deep in debt.
Most weekends when Martha Frankel was a kid, her mother had a mah-jongg game going in the kitchen with her girlfriends while their husbands were in the living room playing poker. Once Frankel reached adulthood, however, while her cousins were making their way in the world as bookies and drug dealers, gambling didn't much factor into her life.
In the tradition of Five-Finger Discount by Helene Stapinski and Dry by Augusten Burroughs, Hats & Eyeglasses traces Frankel's love affair with poker. It was a passion that bit her in her mid-forties and remained harmless enough when she stuck to real cards. But everything changed one evening in 1998 in Atlantic City, when Frankel overheard one dealer bemoan the fact that his tips that evening were going to be small what with the meager crowd assembled. Another dealer mentioned that everyone must be playing online-"Why leave the house when you can play in your pajamas?" the dealer said. Why indeed? thought Frankel, who couldn't wait to get back to her computer. The next morning she took a deep breath, typed in her credit card number, and entered the world of online gambling. It was the beginning of what one of her uncles called "hats and eyeglasses," a term used to describe those times when you're losing so bad you're drowning (so all one can see is the poker player's hat and eyeglasses floating on the surface of the water). By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Hats & Eyeglasses is a tale of passion,addiction-and those times in life when we almost lose our shirt.
The Washington Post - Jonathan Krim
Martha Frankel may not be a prototypical member of the faceless players who flood casinos, card rooms and online gambling sites, but her memoir, Hats & Eyeglasses, is at once funny, disturbing and likely familiar to many who have lived in the grip of obsession…to read Hats & Eyeglasses is to want to get to know Frankel, to hear her tell even more rollicking tales than the book reveals, and especially to play poker with her. For low stakes, of course.
Publishers Weekly
A soft-pedaling memoir by journalist Frankel fondly recalls growing up in the Bronx and Queens, N.Y., learning to play poker from her dad and uncles, which would later become her obsession. As a kid Frankel absorbed the numbers-canny ways of her relatives, who doled out gambling advice such as the reference in the title to a ship's sinking, leaving only hats and eyeglasses floating on the surface. With the death of her beloved father, known as the Pencil because he was a CPA, Frankel's big dreams deflated and she largely drifted through school, a first marriage and drug use, before meeting woodworker Steve. She moved to Woodstock, N.Y., and, through friends, began writing celebrity interviews for magazines like Details. An idea for writing a screenplay about a poker player brought her into close contact with her ex-con cousin Keith, who had taught her how to play. From regular Wednesday night poker games with her friend Sal's group of hard-pickled males, where she learned how not to play "like a girl," to an all-poker cruise to casinos in Atlantic City, N.J., and L.A., she gravitated to playing online, which enthralled her-and emptied her bank account. As she explains in this frank and unaffected memoir, shame brought her back to her family and closer to her mother. (Feb.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationKirkus Reviews
A competent though slight reminiscence of days of wine and flushes. Those who have read Mordecai Richler's novel Joshua Then and Now will be familiar with entertainment journalist Frankel's father and his cronies, tough immigrants with names like Cha Cha, Broadway and Sammy B who aspired to get out of the Bronx projects and passed the time playing poker and pinochle. The Frankels did get out, moving across town to an apartment in Queens with a nice view of the 1964 World's Fair site, then under construction. The game followed: men in one room playing poker, women in the other playing canasta. "I learned to read the Daily Racing Form," writes Frankel. "I learned about daily doubles and exactas, started to recognize the jockeys from one week to the next, learned the name of the man who sold the tickets, the one who smiled at me and said, 'Hope this one's a big winner, honey,' as he handed the tickets to my father." Such is the vanity of human wishes; Frankel's memoir turns up few winning moments, its title referring to the bupkes that pop brought down on the low-stakes circuit of backroom poker and OTB. Frankel doesn't do much better, coached along by an ex-con cousin who is distinctly unimpressed by the list she carries that runs from a pair to a straight flush ("'Because I can't remember what comes between three-of-a-kind and four-of-a-kind,' I whine"). Still, she holds her own, self-aware enough to know her strengths and weaknesses as a player and smart enough to impress fellow inmates at a writers' workshop. At that, the book has a workshoppy feel, with a few feints at drama-Is she a gambling addict? Will she lose her shirt at Harrah's?-and the requisite what-I-learned lesson: "I'm nolonger out of control, fighting a dragon I could never slay."Of modest interest as an admonition to the potentially wayward. But Richler's book has a better payoff. Agent: Lynn Johnston/Lynn Johnston Literary
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Avoiding Miscarriage: Everything You Need to Know to Feel More Confident in Pregnancy
Author: Susan Rousselot
Written in the warm and accessible manner of a knowledgeable girlfriend, this highly unique book is the first to enable women to evaluate their own risk of miscarriage and take steps to reduce that risk. There are only four major causes of miscarriage, and targeted questionnaires help each woman clarify whether she might be at higher risk in any of these areas. Each cause is explained thoroughly but clearly, with the information and support women need to improve their chance of future successful pregnancy. This makes the book as relevant for women who have never even been pregnant as it is for women who have experienced miscarriage. The book presents a detailed overview of miscarriage, dispels common myths, provides flow charts to help reveal the cause of any previous unexplained loss, and offers positive, practical options for action. It is written from the patients perspective, drawing on sympathetic case studies to introduce each chapter and presenting complex medical research in a way that is easy to understand. The reassuring and upbeat tone inspires a positive attitude, and the book enables each woman to identify the path that is right for her based on her unique personality and circumstances.
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